Lincoln County announced Monday it has hired the new head of its largest department following the nine-month search to fill the position.
JacksonVictor Jackson began working as the health and human services director on Monday, overseeing over 150 employees in the department. Jackson is taking the place of Jayne Romero, who was hired as the county’s health and human services director at the height of the pandemic in 2021 and retired last August.
Jackson previously worked as the chief executive officer of Columbia River Mental Health in Vancouver, Wash., which ran into financial turmoil in 2025 that resulted in four clinic closures, layoffs and furloughs of 100 employees. Amid a $6 million budget deficit, Jackson resigned last year after four years on the job.
Before that, Jackson served as a chief executive officer for various hospitals and healthcare systems in Philadelphia, and internationally in Trinidad, Antigua and Barbuda, Egypt and India.
He earned his undergraduate degree in public health from Richard Stockton College and his master’s in public administration/health care from Kean University, both in New Jersey. He began his health care career at a federally qualified health center in Philadelphia, according to a news release from the county announcing his hiring.
The county said Jackson intends to focus on housing insecurity, which he sees as one of the biggest drivers of poor health, partnering with affordable housing agencies. His other goals, according to the news release, is to increase mobile outreach and partner with other health organizations.
“I saw the opportunity to join Lincoln County, and the first thing is, I really understand rural health care and the challenges that come with it,” Jackson said in a prepared statement. “I also understand being in sort of a tourist market, having served in the islands, and I think people have this misconception that you work in a tourist place, it certainly must be easy to recruit, but that’s not always the case.”
— Shayla Escudero/Lincoln Chronicle
The following statement is from Mr. Jackson:
“While I have not been contacted for comment regarding the recent article, what is true is that CRMHS was one of the first behavioral health centers directly impacted by the halt in federal government grants.
“The impact caused a rapid decline in the ability to meet cash flow needs and with thin to no margins not uncommon in any non-profit, decisive action was necessary to continue operations to include seeking partners for critical service support. There were also some furloughs, but critical operations continued. With that said, I led the organization through many achievements which included mobile outreach, certified community health center (CCBHC) designation, opening the largest OTP facility in southwest Washington and CARF accreditation, to name of few. Many organizations continue to struggle and with pending Medicaid cuts, more re-alignment and closures will certainly occur. I wish I could say that what CRMHS experienced was an anomaly, but reports continue to come in of closures of critical access hospitals, mergers and bankruptcies of many health care institutions throughout the country. My sincere hope is that we continue to advocate for the patients that are in need of services and by extension those that provide their care.”